Minami

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Mindcotine is a digital smoking cessation program that combines virtual reality with neuroscience. Through a remote, personalized, and self-assisted program, we help people quit smoking. I’m co-founder and the chief science officer of the company, responsible for product development and research.

What challenge were you trying to address with Minami?

We were aiming to increase engagement and retention rates on our clinically-validated product by better understanding the clients we’re aiming to sell to: namely, enterprises like insurance companies. We moved from a direct-to-consumer model to a B2B corporate-wellness one. We hired Minami to orient ourselves towards reaching and converting these clients.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with Minami in bi-weekly to weekly sprints. Together, we began the onboarding process where we recruited corporate employees to engage in our smoking cessation program. They’ve also helped produce our app.

We also determined what methods of communication would be the most effective in outreach. Over the course of a month and a half, we combined an analog product with a digital one. We’ve always produced box kits than participating employees received; before working with Minami, we always got negative feedback about confusion over how to use the kit.

Minami helped us simplify this unboxing process and allowed us to increase user engagement by better communicating our objective and process to people.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Daniel (UX Strategy Lead, Minami) and Noel (Director & Founder, Minami), whom we meet with in person, whenever they’re in San Francisco. Daniel is in charge of our sprints, but we’ve worked with around six people from their team, which included a 3D graphic designer.

We’ve worked with teammates in Argentina and Mexico who’ve implemented the designs for the app as well as its illustrations and wireframe designs.

How did you come to work with Minami?

One of my co-founders had lived in Mexico for seven years, where he knew Minami’s 3D illustrator. When they met again in Mexico, that designer took our project to her bosses. They became interested in working on something with purpose and impact. We contacted them, and they told us they could really help give us direction. We liked their way of working, so our partnership began.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, the cost of their services has been $55,000–$58,000, and we expect to spend $70,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Minami in May 2019, and it’s ongoing. We have a month and a half left to reach our goal of creating the new UI/UX for the app.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We sampled this new approach with focus groups, and we saw product understanding go up by a substantial amount. With that, we’re hoping to see an increase in product efficacy, as well. We’re expecting a 30%–40% increase in retention, which is quite significant.

How did Minami perform from a project management standpoint?

We had frequent meetings, typically twice a week. They shared their workflow and task progress with us—using project management software—and we’d share our feedback. The feedback sessions would go both ways, which was very helpful. The constant communication was great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by the ease with which we managed the remote partnership. I haven’t been bothered by it. They’re professionals, so our partnership has been very smooth.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve appreciated if they took better advantage of their creative freedom. Instead of simply completing our asks and tasks, I would even like to see some pushback—“let’s ask the users and conduct research, first” would be an excellent objection. I’ve seen them grow more creative throughout our partnership, though, especially since I encouraged them to stop listening to me.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Have a conversation with them. They’re open-minded and creative, and they can offer great solutions to help their clients discover better ways to achieve their goals. I’d also recommend that you go straight into a one-week design sprint because it lets you be more critical about your own processes.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of an organization focused on innovation, primarily for governments and NGOs. We do consulting work and help our clients become more agile and productive. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Minami?

We were looking to redesign our brand, website, and other assets.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We explained what we wanted to Minami and shared material that represented us. They identified the core values of our company, such as being agile. They created our new brand based on this, followed by the website.

They proposed another technology initially, but we decided to use Wix for our website, which our designers and other team members could adapt to quickly. It was an extra step for Minami to adapt their designs to Wix, but it was important for us, as it allowed our entire team to modify pictures, text, and other content. They were flexible in understanding our needs.

What is the team composition?

We had one main designer on their team, along with two other members who helped us with our strategic messaging.

How did you come to work with Minami?

We knew each other from the Buenos Aires design community, and we knew that Minami had the right skills. We approached various agencies, but we chose them because they had a better understanding of the work we did. They were the freshest option in terms of digital design, and they were enthusiastic about what we were doing.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial phase cost $5,000. Including the Wix website, we spent around $7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Minami between November 2018–January 2019. We continued working with them on smaller projects after that.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The new website aesthetically presents us as a more robust and serious institution. Although we’re young, the website makes us look like a more prominent organization.

How did Minami perform from a project management standpoint?

We enjoyed working with them, and we worked together as one team. Their designers helped us think more in-depth about the work, and they were flexible in terms of management and time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were collaborative and open to sharing knowledge, inspiring us to start more projects with them. They were genuinely interested in what we did and in helping us grow.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything at the moment.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should involve Minami in the work and what they do and be open about how they want to collaborate. We had a lot of ideas on what we wanted in the beginning, and Minami was open to those.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Lead of Product Management

For what projects/services did your company hire Minami?

Redesign of UX platform as part of product diversification

What were your goals for this project?

• Redesign UX Experience
• Simplify the interactional design
• Modernize the design
• Build a new framework for task based design approach

How did you select this vendor?

We selected Minami Digital after they were able to successfully deliver UX designs for the prototype of application.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involved, style guide, information and interaction design flow, detail screen designs, review with engineers, design QA and user experience testing.

What was the team composition?

The team composed of UX lead, designers who worked very closely with product management.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The new UI was released in record time and addressed lot of challenges with the previous designs. The customers loved the simplified new design and adoption went up by 30% in the first few months.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team meeting between Minami Digital and other team was very structured. The team monitored the progress diligently and were quick to iterate on suggestions to meet the overall goal.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

• Ability to bring fresh ideas
• Following up to make sure the implementation is done
• Collaborative nature of the team to work on ideas

Are there any areas for improvement?

• More understanding of the customer challenges when navigating across a the platform and then provide a wholestic design. The designs sometimes are too optimized for one part of the platform and becomes complex for other parts of the platform.
• More interactive design patterns that are transformational.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as a freelance project manager and I help my clients with their development needs.

For what projects/services did your company hire Minami?

For the design of a mobile web app.

What were your goals for this project?

Offer e-commerce functionality.

How did you select this vendor?

I know Daniel Priego from Minami and I have been working with him before.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They did the design of the whole interface.

What was the team composition?

A UX/UI designer.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

My client was very happy and I continue working with her today.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I was managing the project. Budget and schedule was respected.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are the best I've been worked with hands down.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing that comes to my mind.